


Nightmare In Los Santos

by Dips_Mananda



Category: GTA AU - Fandom, Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Drug Use, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Torture, Insomnia, M/M, Recreational Drug Use, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 10:30:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3287015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dips_Mananda/pseuds/Dips_Mananda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Okay. But just imagine ah ot6 right, and ryan has sleeping problems and he hides it from the guys (they just assume he stays up late) but one day its 4am and ray goes to get a glass of water and finds ryan with bags under his eyes and tears running down his face sitting at the kitchen table and ryan panics. But then ray asks whats wrong and ryan just lets out everything and ray just lets him talk But then once everybody knows michael is determined to stay up with him and talks with him or draws or plays video games on silent and michael always ends up falling asleep but it makes ryan feel better and JUST RYAN CENTRIC OT6</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightmare In Los Santos

In the city of Los Santos, the nightlife is a roaring scene full of drugs, crime, and the business of modern life. For Ryan Haywood, AKA the Mad King, it wasn’t so glamourous. For him, the nightlife wasn’t even a nightlife. It was his day life dragging on into the twilight hours. Everyone else would be asleep in their shared apartment, Geoff at the center, Jack and the Lads piled around him.

Ryan never joined them. If he had, then none of them would be sleeping. See, Ryan was called the mad mercenary, the Mad King, for a reason. He had done some horrible shit in his life, made enemies that would have other crews wiped out in seconds. But the things he’d done never bothered him. No, he felt little remorse for the lives he’d ended, for the mayhem he caused. It was what had been done to him that kept him up at night, his eyes burning with needed for sleep that he simply couldn’t get.

Simply put, he had nightmares, when he actually managed to fall asleep. It was more than that though. Ryan was inflicted with hard hitting insomnia, it kept him up for days on end and even with sleeping pills he never managed to find a balance between nightmares and waking. As it was, he was always the only one up anyways.

His five boyfriends were always asleep through the night. He hadn’t told any of them about his insomnia or the nightmares. He didn’t want them to worry, not when they had so much else to worry about in the lifestyle they lived. Being full time gang members was hard enough, he didn't want to fuck up their intricate sleep pattern..

Geoff and Jack were always the first to bed, retiring early with each other, though not always to simply sleep. Ray and Michael followed after that, dragging a whining Gavin between them. Gavin sometimes would refuse to sleep, but end up falling asleep anyways. He never was a master of staying up, unless he was working away on getting data for their next heist. On those nights, Ryan hid his insomnia away in the guest room.

They always assumed that he used that room as his hang out spot for his late night habits, since any noise in the main room would wake one of them. They simply thought their second oldest member stayed up late. They were wrong. He didn’t simply stay up, he just couldn’t sleep.

Some weeks it got to the point where come heist day, he’d ask Geoff quietly if he could stay behind, tell him he wasn’t feeling up to a heist and didn’t want to botch it for the rest of them. That’d get him the heist off but a job later in the week, as well as a concerned kiss from Geoff. It didn't matter that none of them knew, Geoff let him opt out anyways. The boys never asked, and that was...concerning, sometimes.

Sometimes he felt like he should tell them, fall into them and beg for them to _please please pay attention to what’s happening to me_ , but no. He couldn’t, couldn’t and wouldn't demand that of them. So he simply stayed up, dealt with his insomnia, and when he slept, the nightmares.

~~~

It was a late night as usual for Ryan, and he considered simply getting blackout drunk so he could sleep. They had a heist tomorrow, and it’d been a few days since he’d slept. Not good for a heist. Ryan decided that yeah no, sleeping pills it was. He heads to his bathroom, grabbing his sleeping pills and shaking a couple out, swallowing them down without giving himself time to hesitate. After that he heads to the bedroom he shares with the others, peeking in at them.

His pills usually kept him from physically reacting to nightmares, and he missed sleeping with them. Would it be intruding if he did? Did they even want him there, since he so often refused to? Before he could make the decision himself, a warm hand closed around his and tugged him in, reaching around him to close the door.

In the gloom of the room, he could only make out a silhouette, at least until the figure spoke.

“Finally coming to bed for once Rye Bread?”

He relaxes. Michael.

“Yeah, we have a heist tomorrow and...I miss sleeping with you guys.”

“Ya know you can always join us, even if you do stay up until the ass crack of dawn.”

Ryan can hear the sleepy smile in his voice and nods, taking his hand and heading towards the bed.

“I know, I just don't want to wake any of you, ya know?”

Michael yawns and nods, the movement barely noticeable in the dark.

“Uh huh, now get undressed and get in bed already.”

He watches Michael climb back in bed and press his back against Gavin’s, waiting for him. Ryan works on undressing, shucking off his leather and letting it fall the the floor, stepping out of his pants and pulling his shirt off over his head. He turns to rummage in his drawer, pulling out a pair of plaid pyjama pants and pulling them on before moving back to Michael.

He smiles when he hears Michael’s soft snore, climbing into the bed, and wiggling up in front of him, dragging the covers over them. He settles his arms around him when Michael presses into his chest, their legs tangling as his soft face presses into Ryan’s chest. Ryan sighs, the drugs in his system dragging him into sleep’s waiting embrace.

~~~

When Ryan woke up, it was to the sound of metal scraping against metal, the sound of a knife being dragged through a sharpener. He goes to sit up, and finds that he already is. It makes him from, trying to blink the sleep out of eyes and finding them still blurred. As he sits, blinking in hopes of clearing his vision, the sound cuts off, a instead a voice just as grating takes it’s place. One he’s heard many, many times before.

“So your Majesty, ready to talk yet?”

He has no control of himself at this point, and with a jolt he realizes he isn’t really awake. He’s reliving a memory in a dream. And not one he’d ever expected. It was one of the oldest and one of the most buried ones he had. It was before Fake AH, before he ever considered group work. It had been back when he was simply the Mad King, not Ramsey’s Mad Mercenary. His body reacts based on what happened, and he realizes he has no control in this nightmare.

“What, have somewhere more important to be? Me too.”

A hard punch to the gut has his dream self hunching over, has him jolting from the phantom pain. It doesn’t truly hurt, but the memory of it is what has him hunching over with his dreamself. He’s pulled back upright with a hand gripping his hair, it had spilled out of its bun when he was nabbed.

“We ain’t got no need for that mouth. We ain’t really need shit. We just wanna keep ya talkin till the boss gets here and finishes you off.”

His body floods with cold, and against his will he raises up, staring straight at the man.

“Like I’ll still be here.”

Fists raise at the threat and he internally struggles, chained and unable to control the nightmare as knives are drawn out, as his clothes fall away from his body from numerous cuts. He remembers each and everyone of these, and the scars on his body scream of phantom pain.

He’s struggling to wake up from this memory, his dream state little more than blood, knives and pain, and there’s a cloying rope tying him down, keeping him rooted firmly in the nightmare. That’s when he remembers the pills, the ones to keep him asleep. He curses them, flying curses that scream out of his throat, leaving it raw and leaving his dream self coughing up blood, though in the dream it isn’t from screaming.

He’s close to passing out, he remembers it from the memory when a harsh voice echoes around the room.

“Fucking wake the hell up!”

That, along with the feeling of everything shaking has him sitting up, blinking and looking around, calmer on the outside than on the inside. He blinks and squints, looking around to find Michael with his arms crossed and ready for battle.

“Rye, I know you get to sleep late but come on, it’s almost time for the heist!”

Ryan has a moment to sigh in relief that Michael didn’t know before he’s being hauled off the bed and pushed towards the bathroom to “fucking get ready already.”

~~~  
  


The heist goes about as well as you’d think. There was chaos galore, mayhem and blood reigning supreme. Gavin nearly crashes a chopper at one point and Ryan nearly loses an ear when a cop almost hits him, but it’s worth it when they’re in the car heading to a safe house. Everyone is chattering, Geoff and Michael talking about the explosion, Jack reprimanding Gavin for the near crash and Ray talking about how much weed he’s going to buy with his bit of money(even if Geoff will give him it free and just take the cost from his own cut).

Ryan is zoning out, the nightmare from the night before coming back in little bits. Why he had he dreamed of that, of when he had been caught with his guard down and lost so much because of it. The nightmare reminded him why he avoided crew work before, the memory that him working with a crew got him captured and nearly killed until the old crew had finally found him. He hadn’t hesitated in siphoning all of their funds and then blowing up their safe house, killing all of them.

That was when he’d sworn off group work. Well, look at him now.

~~~

It’s later that night, and Ryan had sworn off ever sleeping again. He’d napped in the guest room and woke up stifling screams, heart pounding in his chest and he’d sworn he was dead with the way he couldn’t catch his breath, with how heavy his chest seemed. Sleep just wasn’t working for him, the nightmares were too strong, naps never helped

And when his insomnia started acting up really badly again later that week, he thanked whatever God there was. But when it had him sitting at the kitchen table at four in the morning, tears scalding his cheeks as he recovers from a panic attack, he started hating it again.

He’s still sitting there when the tap suddenly starts running and he hears the sound of someone fumbling with a cup does he look up, eyes red and bloodshot from tears. He watches Ray turn around at the noise of him moving and stop dead. He waits, tears stinging his face, as Ray speaks.   
  


“Whoa, Ry? Are you okay? It’s like four in the morning, why’re you still up?”

Ryan stares at Ray before crumpling, sobbing as he covers his face with his hands. He hears Ray yelp and feels his small warm hands cup his neck.

“I haven’t even gone to sleep yet, I can’t sleep, I don’t want to sleep.”

When Ray doesn’t answer, he babbles on, sobs making his breath hitch part way through.

“I haven't been able to sleep for so long. If it isn't the insomnia then it’s the nightmares, the god damn nightmares. It makes me so scared to sleep, makes me dread having to pretend that I did sleep. I can’t sleep with you guys without taking pills to keep me asleep so I don’t wake you. God I want to, so bad, but I- I can’t- I just-”

He trails off, his face still covered. He hears Ray shift and he feels himself get tugged up from the tale and dragged somewhere. He uncovers his face to see ray has pulled him into the guest room with the tv and is tossing extra blankets and pillows on the bed. He groans.

“Ray I can't- I can’t sleep.”

“Who said we’re sleeping? No sleeping here, no sir. We are gonna watch shitty comedies until all hours of the day and get high as a fucking kite.”

The fact that Ray is staying up with him both relieves him and makes him feel guilty.   
  


“Ray, you don’t have to-”

“Yes I do. I need someone to watch shitty movies and get high with, and you’re the most willing my man. Plus, R’ n’ R connection right?”

Ryan smiles at that and moves to climb into bed, settling back against the headboard as he watches ray pack a bong. He wipes the tears off his cheeks as he does so, and when Ray passes him the bong, he takes a hit without hesitation. After the room is filled with smoke and Ray has repacked the bowl several times, the shitty movies they’re watching actual become funny. Ryan finds himself laughing more and more, even as Ray starts to wind down.

It takes a while, and a whole lotta weed, but Ray eventually does zonk out like Ryan thought he would. Ryan may have no problem staying up(even though it was by no choice of his own), but Ray could only manage so long. It was getting late anyways, nearing almost noon by that point. Ryan leaves Ray curled up and asleep in the guest room, and heads out to do some work he had to get done.

~~~

When he gets back it’s late, around midnight, and he expects everyone to be asleep already. The sight that greets him however is one he’d never expected. Michael sits sprawled on the couch, lazily playing a game of Halo. He looks up when Ryan comes in, waving and swearing when he gets killed.

“Hey Rye-bread.”

“Michael? What are you doing still up?”

“Well Rye, I thought we could bang, since everyone else is asleep and you never sleep.”

 

Ryan pauses at that, staring at Michael. Michael rolls his eyes, lifting his legs and gesturing him over.

“Come on asshole, I just wanna game.”

Ryan walks over, settling on the couch and letting Michael prop his legs up in his lap, his game on silent. Ryan stays quiet for a minute before speaking.

“So...you know?”

“Ray told us. You coulda said something Rye. We’d’ve understood.”

“I know, just didn’t want any of you to feel obligated to stay up with me.”  
  
“You kidding me Rye? Dude, we’re your fucking boyfriends, we’re obligated to suck your dick and eat all of your food, not whine about getting to spend some sweet sweet alone time with you.”

That makes Ryan smile, because even with all the profanity, he knows that Michael is being sweet, in his own way. He smiles, patting his leg and propping his own up on the coffee table. It’s late, and there’s something soothing about having Michael here with him. He turns to look at him, studying the way he sticks his tongue out a bit when he’s concentrating, how his fingers dance of the controller like they do over his explosive.

Once in a while Michael will pause his game to yawn and stretch, moving at one point to sit in Ryan’s lap, leaning into him in a way that allows him to watch his game while still allowing Ryan to do as he was, which was reading. He listens to the click of the controller, content to simply sit with Michael in his lap.

At around 5 a.m, he notices that the game isn’t moving anymore, the screen darkened. He glances down to see Michael fast asleep, controller half fallen out of his hands onto his lap. Ryan smiles and gently takes the controller the rest of the way out of his grasp, shutting the Xbox down and setting the controller aside. He bookmarks his page and carefully stands, cradling him bridal style. Michael grumble a bit, shifting and rubbing his face into his shoulder.

Ryan carries him down the hall, gently nudging the door open and stepping in. He allow himself a minute to adjust to the darkness before stepping in, gently nudging Ray over before tucking Michael in beside him. He takes his glasses off him, folding them and setting the aside. He smiles softly, looking over him. he leans down, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead and brushing his curls off his face before standing and heading out of the room. He was glad he had Michael, it was nice to not have to stay up alone.

~~~

From then on it was a recurring theme. Michael would wait up for Ryan to get back and sit with him late into the morning. Sometimes they would talk about whatever was on their mind until Michael could hardly keep his eyes open. Other times Michael would request that he stays still while he reads, moving only to turn pages. By the end of the night he’d he nodding off, sleepily shading the picture. Ryan would find it later that night and add it to the wall of his drawings that he has in his guest room.

Other times it’d just turn into a soft sort of waiting time, where they played together are Ryan simply held Michael as he fell asleep. It’s nice, for Ryan. He doesn’t feel nearly as alone anymore, not with MIchael here with him. Most of the attention in the relationship usually centered around the first relationships, like Mavin and Team OG. But here, now, it was Team Crazy Mad’s time to shine.

Sometimes Ray would take his place, and those were the nights spent in his room, hot boxing it up with Ray and laughing at shitty tv until Ray crashed. Gavin never attempted to even try, just sat with him until midnight when Geoff would drag him to bed. Ryan never minded. They had their routine, and he had his. Though his was often...quieter. Not that Gavin being loud in bed was a problem.

It never was.

~~~

The first time Ryan fell asleep with Michael on the couch was the first time he didn't have a nightmare since he’d become a mercenary. It surprised him when he opened his eyes the next day to noise, calamity, and the realization that _he wasn't the one causing it_. No, he had slept, nightmare free, with Michael on his chest. It makes him nearly sob with happiness, sending Ray tumbling over onto them to see what was wrong, whilst he all the while mumbled “parkour” even as he flailed from Michael’s grumpy pushing.

It didn’t take long after that for Ryan to figure out that even if he did have a nightmare, they wouldn't mind. He started sleeping with them, and after some insistence from Michael (mixed with a few great blowjobs, as Geoff will add) Ryan found himself at the center of the “six way hella gay cuddle pile” as Ray had dubbed it. Geoff of course still stole as close to middle as he could, but Ryan never minded.

He could finally sleep with his boys and not worry so much. Finally, he did have a nightlife, and a daylife. Sometimes though, he still had a primarily day kind of life. He never minded those days.

  
Not as long as he had Michael with him.

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt I found from tumblr user danosaursrex. Hope I did it justice, and as always you cna follow me on tumbler at dipsmananda,tumblr.com for more prompts, shipping, and other random reblogs.


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